Posted on 01/11/2008 9:05:06 AM PST by khnyny
REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES PARTICIPATE IN A DEBATE SPONSORED BY FOX NEWS
JANUARY 10, 2008
SPEAKERS: FORMER GOV. MITT ROMNEY, R-MASS.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, R-ARIZ.
FORMER MAYOR RUDOLPH W. GIULIANI, R-NEW YORK CITY
REP. RON PAUL, R-TEXAS FORMER GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE, R-ARK.
FORMER SEN. FRED THOMPSON, R-TENN.
BRIT HUME, MODERATOR
CHRIS WALLACE, MODERATOR
CARL CAMERON, MODERATOR
WENDELL GOLER, MODERATOR
(Excerpt) Read more at thestate.com ...
Thanks!
BUMP!
Thanks for posting.
Here’s Fred’s first answer from last night. You can see what I’m talking about when I say it was a rambling mess:
WALLACE: Senator Thompson, I’d like to get your opinion, also, on whether or not we’re in a recession or headed for one. And, as well, you have proposed a big tax plan, but much of it, including, for instance, extending the Bush tax cut, wouldn’t help in the short run.
Do you support a short-run government stimulus package or should we just leave the economy alone?
THOMPSON: First of all, I need to defend Rudy a little bit on his tax plan, because it looks an awful lot like the one I put out a couple of months ago.
So the government never loses as much revenue as the experts say we’re going to. With the ‘01 and ‘03 tax cuts in place, we received more revenue into the government in one day in April of this year than ever before in the history of the country.
So much for the experts, as far as that’s concerned. It does stimulate growth and it’s overall beneficial for the economy.
Unemployment is up to five percent. That used to be considered full employment, but we’re going in the wrong direction with regard to that. It’s not just the subprime market now. It’s poured over into the general housing market.
Credit is scarce. It’s affected the consumer credit market in general. If you’re talking about automobile loans or you’re talking about credit card thieves or anything like that, the money is getting tighter and tighter.
We still have a bunch of two-handed economists in Washington. On the one hand, we may go into recession, and, on the other hand, we may not. Nobody knows. But I think that as we proceed, we need to count on the fed doing the right thing in terms of the interest rates and we need to look seriously at whether or not we should do things such as speed up depreciation schedules for businesses, those that create jobs, have a deduction for capital expenses instead of having to capitalize them, things of that nature.
We had a stimulus package back in ‘01. It’s targeted toward the lower income people. I think that has to be considered somewhere along the line if the economy calls for it, not today, but perhaps a little later on.
But we have to keep in mind a great many lower income people don’t pay income taxes to start with. So an income tax rebate like we’ve tried before would not work.
We would all be a lot better off if people knew that these tax cuts of ‘01 and ‘03 were not going to expire at the end of 2010, which they’re scheduled to do.
Most unartful dodge from Romney was when he was asked if he would decide to include abortion services in a national health insurance program, as he decided it was necessary in the state plan. He passed the buck and changed the subject.
He didn’t decide - the Massachusetts Supreme Court decided. If we don’t win in 2008 SCOTUS will be liberal for the next 50 years. Think about that.
"He didn’t decide - the Massachusetts Supreme Court decided. If we don’t win in 2008 SCOTUS will be liberal for the next 50 years. Think about that."
That's absolute bull-cr@p. Flip Romney had a line-item veto as governor of MA. That proposal stayed in the RomneyCare mandatory socialized medicine bill because HE WANTED IT THERE.
If Romney could have blamed the court, why didn't he? Blaming activist judges does tend to go over well in Republican debates, after all. Why pass up a slam-dunk?
His changing the subject tells me Antoninus is closer to the truth.
I wanted you to know that the Commonwealth Care benefit services package was developed by the Connector Authority, an independent authority separate from the Governor’s office.
The Commonwealth Care Package Is Designed And Administered By The Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority. “The Connector administers two separate programs; Commonwealth Care and Commonwealth Choice. Commonwealth Care offers subsidized insurance to people whose annual incomes are up to 300% or the Federal Poverty level.” (Commonwealth Connector Official Website, www.mass.gov, Accessed 2/5/07)
The Commonwealth Heath Insurance Connector Authority Is An Independent Public Authority And Their Decisions Were Made Separate Of The Romney Administration. “The Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority is an independent public authority created to implement significant portions of the new landmark health care reform legislation. The Connector assists qualified Massachusetts adult residents with the purchase of affordable health care coverage if they don’t already have it.” (Commonwealth Connector Official Website, www.mass.gov, Accessed 2/5/07)
And, under Massachusetts law and court precedent, if the state is funding health care benefits, as it is with the subsidized Commonwealth Care products, it cannot refuse to fund abortions
.
In 1981, The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Ruled That The Massachusetts Constitution Required Payment For Abortions For Medicaid-Eligible Women. (Moe v. Secretary of Admin & Finance, 1981)
According To The Decision, When A State Subsidizes Medical Care, It Cannot Infringe On “The Exercise Of A Fundamental Right” Which The Court Interpreted As Access To Medically Necessary Abortion Services. (Moe v. Secretary of Admin & Finance, 1981)
In 1997, The Supreme Judicial Court Reaffirmed Its Position That A State-Subsidized Plan Must Offer “Medically Necessary Abortions.” In Moe, “[W]e concluded that the State’s failure to fund medically necessary abortions, while funding all other medically necessary procedures (including services in connection with childbirth), invaded a woman’s constitutional right of choice to a degree that was not counterbalanced by the State’s interest in the preservation of potential life.” (Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, Inc. v. Attorney General, 1997)
So, the inclusion of funding for abortion in the Commonwealth Care benefit services package is an unfortunate consequence of long-standing Massachusetts mandate. It isn’t the excuse to question Governor Romney’s convictions on life that our opponents might claim it is.
>>You can see what I’m talking about when I say it was a rambling mess:<<
No I can’t. Wallace asked him 2 questions. He picked the last one to answer, presumably because it attacked his tax plan.
Thanks for posting. Do you have links for that?
HUCKABEE: And we also unapologetically hold to the idea that the Second Amendment is just as precious as the First Amendment; and, in fact, without the second, we don’t have the first, because we have no way to protect it.
HUCKABEE: I’m going to trust that the president, with the information that he had and that those commanders had, made the right decision. I think we need to make it very clear, not just to the Iranians, but to anybody, that if you think you’re going to engage the United States military, be prepared not simply to have a battle. Be prepared, first, to put your sights on the American vessel. And then be prepared that the next things you see will be the gates of Hell, because that is exactly what you will see after that.
(APPLAUSE)
THOMPSON: Yes, I think so. I think I agree with the governor on that. You can’t take the judgment like that out of the hands of the officers on the ground there. I think one more step and they would have been introduced to those virgins that they’re looking forward to seeing.
HUCKABEE: The Air Force has a saying that says that if you’re not catching flak, you’re not over the target. I’m catching the flak, I must be over the target.
(APPLAUSE)
HUCKABEE: I came into Arkansas as a governor. Put in that position as a lieutenant governor when my predecessor, a Democrat, was forced out of office on a felony conviction.
HUCKABEE: I did something that had not been done in my state in 160 years. I cut taxes, with the legislature working with me, and we continued to do that 94 times.
HUCKABEE: We cut spending. I’ll tell you, the most painful time of my being a governor in 10 and a half years was looking at a budget that 91 percent of which was pretty well fixed on education, Medicaid, and prisons — and cutting 11 percent out of that budget.
CAMERON: Governor Huckabee, to change the subject a little bit and focus a moment on electability.
Back in 1998, you were one of about 100 people who affirmed, in a full-page ad in the “New York Times,” the Southern Baptist Convention’s declaration that, quote, “A wife us to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband.”
Women voters in both parties harshly criticized that. Is that position politically viable in the general election of 2008, sir?
Here the moderator (and Huckabee doubters/mischaracterizers) thinks he as cornered Huckabee, and Huckabee hits it out of the park.
HUCKABEE: You know, it’s interesting, everybody says religion is off limits, except we always can ask me the religious questions. So let me try to do my best to answer it.
(APPLAUSE) And since — if we’re really going to have a religious service, I’d really feel more comfortable if I could pass the plates, because our campaign could use the money tonight, Carl.
(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)
We’ll just go all the way.
First of all, if anybody knows my wife, I don’t think they for one minute think that she’s going to just sit by and let me do whatever I want to. That would be an absolute total misunderstanding of Janet Huckabee.
The whole context of that passage — and, by the way, it really was spoken to believers, to Christian believers. I’m not the least bit ashamed of my faith or the doctrines of it. I don’t try to impose that as a governor and I wouldn’t impose it as a president.
But I certainly am going to practice it unashamedly, whether I’m a president or whether I’m not a president. But the point...
(APPLAUSE)
... the point, and it comes from a passage of scripture in the New Testament Book of Ephesians is that as wives submit themselves to the husbands, the husbands also submit themselves, and it’s not a matter of one being somehow superior over the other. It’s both mutually showing their affection and submission as unto the Lord.
So with all due respect, it has nothing to do with presidency. I just wanted to clear up that little doctrinal quirk there so that there’s nobody who misunderstands that it’s really about doing what a marriage ought to do and that’s marriage is not a 50/50 deal, where each partner gives 50 percent.
Biblically, marriage is 100/100 deal. Each partner gives 100 percent of their devotion to the other and that’s why marriage is an important institution, because it teaches us how to love.
Does anyone have a link to a video of the debate?
None of the questions in any of the debates has asked Huckabee exactly what he means by “to the back of the line.” Remember, that’s exactly what Bush and other pro-amnesty politicians said last year about the amnesty bill, and yet the bill clearly put almost all the illegals at the start of the line, by giving them instant legal status.
Yes, I have read Huckabee’s plan, but it is not nearly specific enough, especially after he said on Fox News Sunday that it would take “days, maybe weeks” for them to return to work.
GOLER: Governor Huckabee, President Bush’s outreach to Hispanics paid off for Republicans at the ballot box in 2004, and then came this whole immigration debate, and Hispanic support for Republicans fell sharply. The debate is often focused on how we can keep them out or throw them out.
How can you convince Hispanics the Republican Party really wants them here?
HUCKABEE: Wendell, I think there is a great misperception that Hispanic people in this country some-how are soft and weak on immigration. They are not. Those who have come here legally, who have stood in line, who have patiently waited to get in this country are some of the ones who insist that we enforce the law.
What I think we ought to do is to certainly start with a secure border, because nothing else matters until then. But we can have a period of time.
I created a nine-point immigration policy that says there’s a 120-day period in which people go to their home country and they start the process from the back of the line. And when people say, how will the government round them up? The government didn’t round everybody up to get here.
The government doesn’t have to round everybody up to get back in line. That’s nonsense. People got themselves here, they can get themselves to the back of the line.
The point we need make is that when people do come here, they ought to live with their heads up. They ought to live in the light, not the darkness. They ought to not be afraid of seeing a police car.
It’s not just in our benefit that we solve this problem. It’s in the benefit of those who do come to this country so nobody looks at a person of maybe Hispanic origin and questions whether or not they are le-gal. We ought to have the assumption that everybody here is legal, that nobody here is illegal.
I have to disagree with this argument from the Romney campaign. The court ruled that the state must cover “medically necessary” abortions under the health care plan. But the majority of abortions are elective. IOW, not medically necessary. The court did not specify that elective procedures must be covered.
Mitt also says he received an award from Mass Right to Life. Others have posted here that he did not, that the award was from a local chapter.
This kind of thing, along with his multiple dramatically changed positions, has really soured me on Mitt.
It's about time someone finally took a shot at Huckabee's liberal fiscal and foreign policies. Mike is on the wrong side of those issues.
I’ll think about that while you think about all the judges Romney picked who were not conservatives or even Republicans.
Huckabee is mischaracterized as liberal on economic issues.
Huckabee gets negative press for the sales tax going up. I have much less issue sales taxes esp at the state level then I do with income taxes, as sales taxes are voluntary and income taxes are not. Taxing work/productivity/income is evil. Income taxes/property taxes/estate taxes are central the tenants of marxism, sales taxes are not.
Huckabee’s positives on taxes:
Pushed through a Democrat legislature the first, major broad based tax cuts in the state’s history (168 years)
Pushed through a Democrat legislature an $80 million tax cut package.
Cut the state’s capital gains tax by 25%.
Established a Property Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights
Limited the increase in property taxes to 10% a year for individuals and 5% per taxing unit
Eliminated the income tax for families below the poverty line.
Increased the standard deductions.
Eliminated the marriage penalty.
Eliminated bracket creep by indexing the income taxes to inflation, thereby preventing taxpayers from moving into a higher bracket when their paychecks increase due to inflations.
Doubled the child care tax credit.
Eliminated capital gains tax on the sale of a home
This is what he said last night:
ROMNEY: Carl, the decision to include abortion services in health care in Massachusetts was required by the court, not by the legislature, and certainly not by me as governor.
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